5/4/75 BAL @ CLE-Game 2

Dennis Eckersley picked up his second win, Frank Robinson added his first home run and RBI of the season, and the Indians swept a double header from the Orioles, winning the second game 10-6.

Cleveland jumped all over Orioles starter Jesse Jefferson, who got lit up for 6 hits and 6 runs (4 earned) in 1-1/3 innings.  The scoring was capped in the second by a 3-run homer by former Oriole Boog Powell, his 7th of the season.

Eckersley cruised through the first 6 innings, allowing only 1 hit (in the 6th) and 3 walks (two in the first).  The seventh got a little out of hand, though it wasn’t all his fault.  He loaded the bases thanks to an error, a hit, and a walk.  Another error by shortstop Frank Duffy (the first of 2 he’d make in the game) allowed the first run to score and kept the bases jammed.  Tim Nordbrook struck out, but a single by Bobby Grich, and another walk drove in two more runs and kept the bases loaded.  Eck got Jim Northrup to pop out, but Ken Singleton singled to drive in two more.  Tom Buskey was brought in to relieve, and the first batter created an interesting play.

With runners on first (Singleton) & third (Al Bumbry)  and two out, Doug Decinces (who’d entered earlier in the game as a pinch runner for Lee May) hit a deep drive to right.  George Hendrick went up against the wall, and appeared to make the catch to end the inning.  The problem was, he didn’t.  However, Singleton didn’t notice this.  After he touched third, he kept heading for the dugout.  DeCinces, thrilled with his first homer of the season, continued to round the bases.  However, since Singleton never crossed home, DeCinces was called out for passing the runner, ending the inning, and turning his homer into a triple (with only 1 RBI instead of 3).

All in all, Eckersley gave up 6 runs, none of them earned.  This lowered his ERA to 0.85.

5/4/75 HOU @ SF

I really dislike the Giants.  I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Astros.  I had a lot of fun in Houston’s 6-2 win at San Francisco.

This a close game most of the way.  Giants starter Ed Halicki was a little wild early on.  Cesar Cedeno led off the game with a single, and went to second when Greg Gross was walked.  Bob Watson singled to drive home Cedeno.  Jose Cruz walked to load the bases.  That’s when Halicki settled down, striking out Doug Rader and getting Ken Boswell to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

The Giants bounced back and tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first on a Chris Speier single, a Bobby Murcer double, and a sac fly to center by Von Joshua.

Gary Matthews homered in the bottom of the 4th to put the Giants up 2-1, which ended Doug Konieczny’s streak of 10 straight batters retired.  A triple by Roger Metzger and a double by Konieczny in the top of the fifth tied it up again.

Konieczny would get through the 5th, but I pulled him after he gave up a leadoff single to Chris Speier in the top of the 6th.  I just had a bad feeling, and with a fully rested bullpen, liked my odds better, particularly with the heart of the Giants order coming up.  I called in Jim Crawford, who got both Murcer and Joshua to ground out, which put Speier on third with two outs.  With Matthews due up, he was intentionally walked, bringing Giants catcher Dave Rader up.  He would ground out to end the threat.

Houston went up 3-2 in the top of the 7th when Cedeno singled with two outs.  That chased Halicki, replaced by Charlie Williams.  Cedeno stole 2nd (his 2nd of the game), and scored on a single by Gross.

The Giants threatened again in the bottom of the 7th.  Darrel Thomas tripled to lead off the inning.  With the infield drawn in, Ed Goodson lined out to Crawford for the first out.  With a couple of right handers coming up, I brought in Ken Forsch, who struck out both pinch-hitter Glenn Adams and Ed Ontiveros to escape any damage.

Houston added two more in the 8th and one in the 9th to go up 6-2.  However, San Francisco wasn’t quite done.  With Wayne Granger on the mound, Matthews reached on an error (by Rob Andrews, who came in as a defensive replacement), and Dave Rader singled to put 2 on and nobody out.  Joe Niekro was called in to put the fire out.  Thomas flew out to right.  Matthews decided he could make it to third.  He decided wrong.  Jose Cruz gunned him down for a double play.  Goodson then grounded out to second to end the game.

Crawford got his first win, and Niekro added save #2.  Halicki took the loss, dropping his record to 3-2.

5/4/75 KC @ MINN

In what turned out to be a far better game than it looked early on, Kansas City knocked off Minnesota 8-7 to take the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

The Royals wasted no time jumping out front.  Following back to back walks to Al Cowens and George Brett, Amos Otis hit a 3-run jack for a 3-0 lead before anyone was out.  Kansas City would continue to pressure the Twins pitching, eventually going up 7-0 after the top of the 3rd.  

In the meantime, Minnesota was on their third pitcher of the game.  Starter Eddie Bane was pulled after 1-2/3 innings.  His replacement, Vic Albury, managed to pitch to 3 batters before experiencing some tightness in his ribcage (he’s day to day, but then again, aren’t we all?).  Tom Johnson replaced him with one out in the 3rd and proceeded to put the first three runners on, all of whom would eventually score.  But he settled down after that.

For the Royals, starter Nelson Briles cruised through the first 5 innings, facing only 16 batters.  Then things got interesting in the 6th.  Briles loaded the bases with no one out, then threw a mistake to Eric Soderholm, who powered the pitch over 400 feet, which was enough to clear the fence and bases for a grand slam.  Suddenly, the Twins were back in it.  They would push across another run to close the gap to 7-5.

An error by Steve Braun allowed KC to add one run in the 8th, but the Twins got it back with a solo HR by Larry Hisle in the bottom half.

Leading 8-6 going into the bottom of the 9th, I brought in Steve Mingori to try to close things out.  Instead, they got interesting.  A walk to Lyman Bostock was followed by a double by Danny Thompson, advancing Bostock to 3rd.  Jerry Terrell was brought in to run for Thompson, and Phil Roof came in to pinch hit for Glenn Borgmann (who’s hitting .191).  Facing a dangerous situation, Mingori got Roof to go fishing on a pitch in the dirt for strike three.  

We intentionally walked Rod Carew (hitting .389) to load the bases.  This is not a move I was very fond of, since it put the winning run on base, but since a base hit would likely tie the game, my reasoning is that I could get by a dangerous hitter as well as set up a possibility of a double play.  The problem, and the thing that almost caused me not to do it, was the fact that this brought Soderholm to the plate, with the bases loaded again.  On a 1-0 pitch, Soderholm hit a shot to deep right.  Luckily, it wasn’t deep enough, as Al Cowens made the catch at the wall.  This did score one run, and Terrell advanced to third.  With 2 outs, and runners on 1st and 3rd, Steve Braun flew out to shallow center for the final out.